Single Idea 20819

[catalogued under 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / h. Presentism]

Full Idea

When he wished to be subtle, Chrysippus wrote that the past part of time and the future part do not exist but subsist, and only the present exists.

Gist of Idea

The past and the future subsist, but only the present exists

Source

report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by Plutarch - On Common Conceptions 1081f

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.88


A Reaction

[from lost On Void] I think I prefer the ontology of Idea 20818. Idea 20819 does not offer an epistemology. Is the present substantial enough to be known? The word 'subsist' is an ontological evasion (even though Russell briefly relied on it).

Related Ideas

Idea 20818 The present does not exist, so our immediate experience is actually part past and part future [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]

Idea 20821 Time is continous and infinitely divisible, so there cannot be a wholly present time [Chrysippus, by Stobaeus]